The Crew

The Crew has a lot of missions and environments to explore, but there are myriad issues that get in the way of its positive aspects.

It's a game that requires and occasionally enforces patience, but like all great road trips it's about the journey, not the destination.

One of the most exciting racing game environments for years, unfortunately bound to a slew of dull races and superfluous story.

The Crew's big wins are buried under a mound of frustrations

Take away its vast environment and The Crew is decidedly mediocre. But the enjoyable story and great sense of actually driving, whether alone or solo, means there's plenty of fun to be had all the same.

I am nominally interested in all of The Crew's parts, but none of them hold my attention

Ubisoft's ambitious open-world racer offers you a whole continent to explore, but struggles to make it really live

The Crew offers you the entire countryside to explore solo or with friends (or strangers), plenty of cars, customization options, and a narrative that extends a purpose beyond "being the best" to get your motor running. Ubisoft's familiar structural pitfalls like microtransactions, online-only play, and other trappings hinder rather than enhance, but those things have become par for the course by now. Thankfully, they don't mar the overall experience, and that was an overtly positive one for me. I don't need a crew to cruise downtown Chicago or the west coast. I was just fine going it alone. And if you settle in for a few hours and let the game take you, I surmise you will be, too.

The Crew is worth a go if you're into racers. You might love it. But there's a better than good chance that the niggling issues will prevent that from happening.

The Crew is quite the ambitious undertaking by a brand-new development studio that offers some fresh ideas for racing games, but it hits a few bumps and roadblocks along the way.